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As the terminal prostate cancer takes over his body and weakens his bones, Forrest Shaw fears he'll bump into a doorway and break an arm. Or sneeze and crack a rib. Eventually, his spinal cord will flatten like a pancake under his own body weight.

The 44-year-old implored Utah lawmakers Thursday to approve a measure that would allow adult state residents with a terminal illness to request, in writing, medication to end their life.

"It would be nice to be able to pass peacefully instead of being tortured by the disease until eventually it will let me die," Shaw told members of the House Health and Human Services Committee.

But the panel overwhelming decided to table the measure Thursday, although it could be taken up at the committee's next meeting with a two-thirds majority vote.

"I still can't get past the fact that we're asking society to legalize others assisting the end of someone's life," said Republican Rep. Kelly Miles, who voted in favor of tabling the measure.

And that sentiment is shared by many Utahns, according to a recent poll.

Fifty-nine percent of state residents surveyed in a recent Salt Lake Tribune-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll strongly said they strongly or somewhat disapprove of legalizing physician-assisted suicide.

Just over a third of Utahns said they approved of making it legal.

The poll showed that only slightly more men than women — 44 percent compared to 43 percent, respectively — were strongly against such a law. But 20 percent of both genders strongly approved.

Catholics and active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leaned heavily against legalization while Protestants were evenly split, the poll found. Non-active Mormons, those of other faiths and the non-religious strongly approved.

Differences over the practice were also stark depending on political affiliations: 56 percent of Democrats strongly approved, compared to 7 percent of Republicans.

The survey, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.98 percentage points.

To receive life-ending medication under HB76, a patient must be a mentally competent adult, a legal Utah resident and have been diagnosed with an irreversible and incurable illness that will result in their death in six months or less, said bill sponsor Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City.

That individual must make two separate requests for the medication, Chavez-Houck said, separated by at least 15 days. The second physician must confirm the terminal diagnosis, she added, and the patient must be counseled on all other treatments, including hospice, and be able to administer the drug themselves.

This is the third time Chavez-Houck has sought to pass a right-to-die measure, an option available in six other states.

"These people live their lives, try to find other mechanisms to prolong their lives and only utilize this option when they're at the end," Chavez-Houck said. "These people don't want to die, but that choice has been taken away from them."

Laura Bunker, president of the nonprofit advocacy group United Families International, argued against the measure Thursday, saying that life should be cherished even in "the bitterness of dying."

"A loved one's final days and hours are profoundly precious and what they need by their bedside is love and support and the best medical care available, not a prescription for death."

But for Shaw, those final days of cancer will mean agony before he succumbs to liver or heart failure. He told lawmakers he'd rather pass tranquilly, on his own terms, and he noted how loving family members commonly wish the same for terminal patients.

"Then they finally pass and everyone is sad but there's a certain release in the room," Shaw said. "Everybody kind of relaxes because they know [that person] is finally at peace. I don't understand why we have to put ourselves through this every time someone passes."

Twitter @alexdstuckey